Ishmael
You walk over to the corpse, rifling through the pockets in its jacket and pants, but don't find anything of use. The decayed skin rips like old cardboard when you put much pressure on it; you're loath to do so for very long, and take a step back, performing a funeral sermon for the poor soul. May he sail the saucy seas into the afterlife.

Miles, to his immense credit, remains quiet in respect throughout the short ceremony. When it's done, though, you very unceremoniously pick up the corpse, throw it over your shoulder, and chuck it out the door. You then take your motorbike inside and remove the covering on the engine. Miles is elsewhere, looking about for any odds or ends he might find. He doesn't seem to find much, so you have him come over to the bed. Together, with much effort, you press it firmly against the the entrance, barricading it shut. It's just in time, too; the roar of hoverbikes grows from a faint roar to a loud one, stopping just outside.

"Come on, Ishmael!" It's not Calvono, but his second-in-command, Buzz; this makes you wonder where Calvono is. Buzz continues, "We know you're in there. You morons left one of your bikes outside." You hear someone kick the other hoverbike over; hear a heavy crack as some form of bludgeoning weapon crushes it.

At the same time, someone else rattles the door handle, trying to push it open. It won't budge. They slam their full weight at the door, seemingly from a running start - with a loud crack, the door smacks against the bed frame, which shakes, but moves no further. "Fukc!" he shouts. "Fukc this shit," he mutters; you hear a clinking noise and only moments later the door dents inwards in several places as someone fires an assault rifle at the other side - but to no real effect. It's a sturdy piece of craftsmanship - and unfortunately the only well-crafted piece of the entire shack. "Can't get in, Buzz," the man says. "Door's too tough."

"That ain't the only way in, dumbass," Buzz admonishes. "Look about for a piece of scrap we could pull off the walls, or a gap in some of the pieces. We'll get in there somehow."

Moments later, the barrel of a combat shotgun punches through a piece of rusty scrap near the door and fires a few blind shots toward the center of the room, narrowly missing you.

"We'll get you assholes one way or another," someone shouts.

Miles
You walk over to the corpse, standing by as Ishmael digs around in its pockets. Then, he starts a brief prayer for the departed. You stand by in silence and respect as he finishes. After he's done, you start digging around in the crates half-heartedly, looking for... well, something that you could use, or might come in handy. You find some surgical tubing, some funnels, a crate of rags - most of it cheap-quality random goods - and some other boxes of mixed metallic parts. Most of it's useless to you, and you don't feel like looking for too long anyway. ((to clarify: bad search roll.))

About then, Ishmael calls you over. He's trying to move the bed to barricade the door; you go over and help him out. He can barely move the thing by himself, but together, you manage. Actually, you end up doing most of the work yourself, as the bed scratches and slides across the old concrete floor. When you get to the shack's entrance, you push the thing up firmly against the doorway, making sure nobody will be able to open it, and then look around for a nice vantage point to hold off the approaching hostiles. You decide on the east side wall, across from the north-facing door. You came from the east, so it stands to reason that they will, too. There's a cracked panel on that side with a gap wide enough to stick an arm through; you go over to it and take up watch, staring off to the east.

It isn't long before they show up. You see them - six people, riding up on powerful hoverbikes, kicking up a billowing dust cloud behind them. They slow their roaring engines as they near the shack - apparently sighting your own hoverbike that you left outside - and shut off their engines after coming to a stop, north of the shack and outside your field of view.

"Come on, Ishmael!" It's not Calvono, but his second-in-command, Buzz; this makes you wonder where Calvono is. Buzz continues, "We know you're in there. You morons left one of your bikes outside." You hear someone kick your hoverbike over; hear a heavy crack as some form of bludgeoning weapon smashes against it.

At the same time, someone else rattles the door handle, trying to push it open. It won't budge. They slam their full weight at the door, seemingly from a running start - with a loud crack, the door smacks against the bed frame, which shakes, but moves no further. "Fukc!" he shouts. "Fukc this shit," he mutters; you hear a clinking noise and only moments later the door dents inwards in several places as someone fires an assault rifle at the other side - but to no real effect. It's a sturdy piece of craftsmanship - and unfortunately the only well-crafted piece of the entire shack. "Can't get in, Buzz," the man says. "Door's too tough."

"That ain't the only way in, dumbass," Buzz admonishes. "Look about for a piece of scrap we could pull off the walls, or a gap in some of the pieces. We'll get in there somehow."

Moments later, the barrel of a combat shotgun punches through a piece of rusty scrap near the door and fires a few blind shots toward the center of the room, narrowly missing Ishmael.

"We'll get you assholes one way or another," someone shouts. You see him coming around the side of the house, plasma torch in hand. It's a rough-and-tumble youngster with a bandanna around his forehead and a shock of curly, black hair poking up from above. You might be able to shoot him.

"Miles, I think we should still try to reason with these guys. After all, as He once said, Be civil in your disagreements for they shall always be with thee, and rational in your debates, for ye shall always have them. "

"But if that fails, we'll have to hit them hard. For just like in the days of yore, The pirates, though peaceful, were forced to fight for their lives!"

"I'll try to use your hoverbike as a source of energy for my Electric Amp and take care of the folks near the door, while you cover the flanks and the rear, OK?"

Boy, was I stupid to leave that bike out there. They might have passed us by if I were smarter.

"By all means, go ahead, reason away. Though, I really doubt much will come of it."

outlander4 wrote:"I'll try to use your hoverbike as a source of energy for my Electric Amp and take care of the folks near the door, while you cover the flanks and the rear, OK?"

Wait, he's going to use my bike...? So, it wasn't all bad that I left it out there... That's relieving.
"Alright."Train my gun on the youth with the bandanna, but do not fire.If he fires at me, fire back, no more than two shots.If Ishmael comes under fire, fire at the youth, no more than two shots.If Ishmael opens fire, fire at the youth, no more than two shots.If Ishmael commands I fire, open fire at the youth, no more than two shots.

PEW OF THE PEW

THIS IS MY PLANET Resident derp.
For some reason, I feel obliged to display how many people have talked in IRC over the past 2 hours:

"I don't think they would agree to reason, but we might as well stall for time till our ships arrives."

Take cover.
Find some hole or crack in the wall to see what's going on in front of the door.
Extend the Quantum Lash
AND make it go (very stealthily!!!) into the sand and outside towards the Miles' hoverbike's controls.

Attempt to reason with pirates to the best of my ability.
Use Charismatic Amp Unit on the enemy leader to make him listen.

Use the following lines for inspiration:

12:12 Lo; for Blackbeard had used this ship to steal food and treasure from the less able ships of the unbelievers who wandered the seas.
12:13 And the Monster observed Blackbeard, and decided that he should survive the flood.

IF they agree to listen,
THEN drag negotiations for as long as possible.

IF they attack at any point,
THEN use my Electric Amp to draw all the power from the Miles' hoverbike
AND electrocute up to 2 attackers closest to the bike.

IF they disagree
THEN use my Quantum Lash to turn on Mile's hoverbike engine to distract the enemy.
Signal to Miles to start shooting.
Use my Electric Amp to draw all the power from the Miles' hoverbike
AND electrocute up to 2 attackers closest to the bike.

Ishmael
You take cover and peer out through a hole near the door. Miles' bike is there, where you thought it'd be - if you could just manage to snake out your Quantum Lash, to grasp hold of the controls...

...of course, this fails - miserably. Not because you just became unlucky, but because you were actually unaware of the limitations of your weaponry. You thought you could make it wiggle around like a tentacle. Extensive experimentation reveals, however, that it does not in fact wiggle around like a noodly appendage. This horrifies you. What if the entire reason you got them was to worship FSM? Where would you be then?

"Buzz?" you ask. You put your quantum lashes away and try to focus your willpower towards your charismatic amp unit. "Buzz, listen here. I know you're a good man. You just want your bonus, right?" Even as you speak, you know that there's no way this will work.

Except it does. "Shut up!" Buzz shouts at his goons. "Yeah, I want a bonus, Ishmael, and I'm gonna get it, just wait."

He's clearly not that bright. You take advantage of this. "I have a way you can make double your bonus," you tell him. "You'll have to leave me alive long enough for me to explain it to you, though. After that you can kill me and continue on your way."

Buzz seems suspicious, but holds up a hand to his goons, bringing them back to him. "And why should I believe you? How do I know you're not tricking me?"

"He prob'ly is, boss," says a man with a skull-patterned handkerchief over his face.

"I said can it," Buzz admonishes. "Well, Ishmael? Why should I trust you?"

"You have me trapped in a building," you point out. "If I'm lying, there's still plenty of time to kill me before your boss gets back, and then you get your bonus anyway. If I'm telling the truth, though... you could still let Miles go, and still have double shares."

A slow smile creeps over Buzz's face. You can read his thoughts through his expression: he thinks he's outsmarting you. He's thinks he's going to listen to your "plan", follow it through, and then turn Miles over to Calvono.

...Well, he's wrong. You don't actually have a plan. Instead, you just ramble for a while, revealing a convoluted, twisted scheme of backstabbing and trading that, upon deeper analysis, would make absolutely no sense to any intelligent person. Buzz's buds try to warn him of this; they're not under the power of your charismatic amp unit - but he just tells them to shut up... at least until he starts to get a little suspicious too.

You've managed to hold them off a few minutes, but it's still going to be close to ten or so before Anya arrives... and Buzz isn't buying it anymore.

Miles
You look out the little hole in the wall and get ready to fire... but bandannaboy doesn't do anything stupid. Actually, he goes back over to Buzz. Ishmael is managing to keep all of them occupied telling them some ridiculous lie about a scheme they can use to get double the bonus with half the trouble - and let you go free. You're happy Ishmael would try to let you go free... although, on the other hand, everything he's saying is total hogwash, so it's not like it matters anyway.

Eventually Buzz figures this out. "Okay, that's enough, Ishmael," Buzz says. "We've wasted enough time. You're just talking shit - it ain't gonna give us a double bonus, you're just trying for time. It's not gonna help you now, you know. I figured out what you're doing." He seems pleased with himself for this, and shouts at one of his crew. "AXLE! Axle, bring me those grenades, we're gonna shove 'em in the walls."

More problems. You hadn't really expected anything else... and Calvono's arrival is going to make things very... interesting.

"Well, my friend, I stalled for as long as I could. If it's the last time we eat from the pasta bowl, so be it! True pirates go down piratin'. Arrr! So, I be tryin' to zap them using whatever power is left in ye bike. Ye, after I give a signal, be snipin', don't wanna any loose grenades shoved into any of our holes"

Smile wickedly.

"AVAST ME HEARTIES!"

Use Electric Amp to draw current from the Miles' hoverbike
AND zap up to three people trying to approach the building.

IF I see anyone trying to shove a grenade into the building,
grace him with a short spell of zero-g using my Gravity Amp.

"You know, I can hardly understand what you are saying... I assume you are speaking the same language as I am, but apart from that, I have no clue."

If anyone tries to place grenades anyplace that poses a threat to my life, - shoot him with plasma rifle, no more than twice.else, watch Ishmael,
and shoot, with no more than two shots, anyone who is trying to kill him

PEW OF THE PEW

THIS IS MY PLANET Resident derp.
For some reason, I feel obliged to display how many people have talked in IRC over the past 2 hours: